Liberty 7/29/2017
Practice
I was lucky enough to get out two times for practice but both times were more than 2 week away from the tourney which was unlucky. Like most people I like to be there the last day we can fish to try to dial in a pattern closest to tournament day. For this tournament I would have to leave the beach on Friday afternoon to fish the tournament and head back down the following day.
Day 1 practice: Water temp 81+ high skies, no clouds, light wind and 90+ air temps.
I am committed to finding good fish in the southern part of the lake. I am a firm believer that we release a significant amount of fish in the south and with the amount of grass down there a larger portion of those fish will call the southern points their homes. I have done well in the south but it can be tough at times with lots of small fish. I started out the day on pawnee point and quickly caught a limit. I was exclusively throwing a drop shot but not in the typical fashion. I would cast out the drop shot as far as I could engage the reel and let the bait pendulum back to the boat. This is a great way to catch suspended fish. This worked well and I landed a few fish over 4. I was also throwing a double fluke and catching a lot of fish.
For the remainder of the day I wanted to fish up and round the cooks main lake area and again the drop shot and double fluke were paying off. I was also working on a new technique for suspended fish. I have been tinkering with a baby rage call on a ned rig head for a few years now. The key to this technique is not having wind, bright skies and 6lb test on a medium light spinning rod. This was a key bait for me on the main lake points in the middle of the lake near cooks and Dave’s hump. Although the fish were suspended off to the side. My weight this day was around 24-25 pounds.
Day 2 practice: Water temps 80+, high skies, no clouds, light wind and 100+ temps
Day 2 was a much similar day to day 1 but my plan this time was to head to the 32 road bed after hitting some additional main lake points in the south. Again the drop show and ned rig craw were paying off with a good starting limit of 18+ pounds. This time we were fishing the points behind the island across from the pumping station. Every point held some decent 2-3 pound fish. After quickly moving through this area I went to the 32 river area and as soon as we passed smallmouth alley I put the trolling motor down and fished the right hand bank. I was focusing on deep water. Again here the ned rig craw paid off with 2 fish over 5 pounds coming off deep trees. Bass like to suspend out front of these trees this time of year but can be hard to catch. On this day the ned rig was getting them.
As the day proceed we fished all the way to the 32 road bed with little to no success but finished the day with a nice limit of fish between 25-27 pounds.
Tournament Day: Windy, Cloudy, 79 degree water temps and semi-post frontal.
Stared the day on Pawnee point and were instantly in hell. My 1st 5 waypoints held zero keepers but we hung in there for about 2 hours trying to wait for the fish to turn on. It never happened and we left with maybe 2 small keepers.
We instantly headed to the shore where I caught the 2 big fish and again little to know success. We worked every tree, rock and piece of grass we could find. The big girls were gone. We rolled around the lower bowl area of 32 near the main lake for the next 4 hours fishing everything we could find with every bait in the boat. We could only manage 4 more keepers.
With just a few hours left in the day and needing a limit we headed back down lake to the grass points behind the big island and were able to finish out our limit. All of our fish came on a drop shot in the grass with prism perch robo worm.
Thoughts after the tournament
1. Need to adjust to the days conditions quicker. If I had to do it again I would had ran to the Cook’s area to start on the points were I did well in day 1 practice. When conditions change in the south the fish just have too much water to go hide and suspend. My guess is that is where my bigger fish moved to.
2. If I am going to fish the south I need to commit more and stay in the grass running more of the points from the bridge to smallmouth alley. I also need to move faster. I cannot commit 2 hours to one spot if they are not biting. Need to search for an active school of fish. This would allow me to hunt and peck our way to a little better limit and have a better chance of running in to a better fish.
Congratulation to all of the winners.
